Does eating extremely light meals help lose weight?

[hambirg]

Just an observation-but you are a 23 year old male-i know everyone has told you 1500 calories a day-but thats actually based on the physiology of a 30 year old female-you should in fact be in the 1800 to 2000 calorie a day range.

To the poster who said "starvation Mode" doesnt happen-how do you think the jews in concentration camps lived, and worked as long as they did on 500 calories a day? Conserving fat is a physiological response to startvation. Yes you will loose weight eventually, but your body is going to hang on to fat as long as it can. Reason being is that the liver can convert fat to glycogen which is the main source of food for the brain. Thats why low/no carb diets work as effectively as they do as long as you keep eating that way-remove carbs, which are the primary source of glycogen, from your diet and and your brain says hey liver we are starving, we need to make glycogen-and the liver responds by kicking into ketosis-the process of converting fat to glycogen. Thats also the reason you regain immediately if you dont watch carb intake after a low carb diet-brain says to liver-hey we got carbs again, lets make lots of body fat so we dont die the next time we get starved.

Weight loss, and more importanly maintaining that loss is a fine line. Eat healthy food and exercise,because you have to burn more than you take in,but dont try and trick systems that evolution has taken a million years to develope-it will bite you later.

Absolutely!

 

[violetrose]

I try and tell people to look at it as a 5 year plan. That 5 years will come and go one way or the other. Either they will be spent getting healthier and down to the weight/body fat % you want or they will be spent doing nothing. When you look at yourself on October 6, 2016 either you will be happy with what you see because of how you spent the 5 years or you will be 5 years down the road wishing you had done something and looking at another 5 years.

That is great advice.

I have been working on losing 30 pounds for over a year. I've achieved it by watching what I eat, paying attention to portions, and walking 5 miles every day. Rain or shine, I walk 5 miles. I knew it wasn't going to come off over night and I knew I wasn't going to be able to sustain a strict diet. So walking turned out to be what my body needed. I know now that I am at a good weight I need to keep working at it -- I think a lot of people fail once they reach their goal. I like your idea of thinking in terms of 5 years down the road. Most people don't reach that far out but really we should all be thinking in terms of changing bad habits for a lifetime, not just the foreseeable future or until we lose X number of pounds.

 

[grafxgirl]

My nutritionist had me eating roughly 1800 calories a day. The key was to make sure the calories were not "empty" calories, make sure my meals were well balanced, full of the right vitamins and minerals, that I wasn't skipping meals, and portion control. Don't forget to exercise at least 30 minutes a day!

 

[grafxgirl]

And now I'm getting confused. All I'm trying to do is lose the weight safely, not perfect my eating habits. This is what I have a multivitamin for.

The thing my doctor told me is losing weight is a life style change. You can't expect to lose the weight and keep it off by crash dieting. The key to losing the weight and keeping it off is making sure you continue the healthy eating habits and exercise, and make sure you don't deprive yourself of something fun to eat like the piece of cake or cookie once in awhile. He also suggested I keep a food journal for the nutritionist to review, and for my own knowledge. One doesn't really know how much we are putting into our bodies on a daily basis. It was eye-opening for me to do it.

I love PB&J sandwiches. Like my doctor told me, don't deprive yourself of the some of your favorite things, otherwise you are going to set yourself up for failure. If you want one, have one, just not everyday. There is a brand called Better'n Peanut Butter with 100 calories, 2 grams of fat, 13 carbs, and 4 grams of protein. Don't forget to subtract your protein grams from your carb grams for an actual total of 9 carbs. Smuckers Sugar free Strawberry preserves has 10 calories, 0 fat, and 5 carbs. Health Express low carb bread has 51 calories per slice, 9 grams of protein, low fat.

 

[Foxhound3857]

As someone else noted, you can't spot reduce fat. It just doesn't work that way.

Your fat cells, btw, will stay. They're yours to keep, gift with purchase.

They simply lose some of the fat they're holding if you get your body to burn it off.

Not that situps are bad or anything, you can build muscle, which burns calories both at the time and in the long run, but you can't spot reduce.

What are you saying, that I might never achieve what I want?

I can't stay motivated to lose my weight unless getting down to a healthy weight (165 in my case) GUARANTEES that I'll have a flat belly when it's all said and done. I don't want to do it if my fat belly is genetic and will never go away. =(

Edit: I'm not starving myself either. I'm keeping count of the calories I eat in a day (my aim is 1500 a day), exercising, and drinking 2 liters of water a day.

 

[HelenePA]

your fat cells will always be there, the only thing you can do is shrink them. Get rid of the fat they store and they shrink.

 

[Foxhound3857]

your fat cells will always be there, the only thing you can do is shrink them. Get rid of the fat they store and they shrink.

What I'm asking is if I get down to my target healthy weight (165 is my goal, but the site says the average healthy weight for someone of my height is between 147-168), will my belly go away enough to stop hanging over my pants and start showing abs?

 

[cornflake]

What are you saying, that I might never achieve what I want?

I can't stay motivated to lose my weight unless getting down to a healthy weight (165 in my case) GUARANTEES that I'll have a flat belly when it's all said and done. I don't want to do it if my fat belly is genetic and will never go away. =(

Edit: I'm not starving myself either. I'm keeping count of the calories I eat in a day (my aim is 1500 a day), exercising, and drinking 2 liters of water a day.

No, if you lose weight, you'll lose weight and places that are larger due to fat stores will indeed shrink.

I just meant you can't shrink specific areas of fat by exercise, and you never get rid of fat cells (except by surgical means). They do shrink as you lose weight and thus the 'fat areas' shrink.

You can't guarantee anything, though. Like a woman who wants to reduce her hips can lose a bunch of weight and have stubborn layers of fat on hips. Doesn't mean hips don't shrink, just that you can't target what you want to shrink specifically. It'll all shrink at its own rates.

Like how you can see two people of the same height and weight - one may have a double chin, one may not. One may have a bigger gut, one may have a bigger butt. It distributes on different people differently. Losing weight will shrink fat cells though, yes.

 

[HelenePA]

I'm sorry I have no idea... I dont know if any of us can answer that truthfully... are you going to the gym along with your diet? I would think yes if you are.

 

[cornflake]

What I'm asking is if I get down to my target healthy weight (165 is my goal, but the site says the average healthy weight for someone of my height is between 147-168), will my belly go away enough to stop hanging over my pants and start showing abs?

If you lose enough your stomach will surely be flatter. Whether you'll be able to see your abs (or whether your abs are even developed enough to show) no one can answer - you'll just have to see!

 

[Foxhound3857]

If you lose enough your stomach will surely be flatter. Whether you'll be able to see your abs (or whether your abs are even developed enough to show) no one can answer - you'll just have to see!

Well, at the very least I want my belly to be flat enough to not show when I wear a smaller shirt, or hang over my jeans, when I hit my target goal.

If I hit my target goal and my belly is still showing, I'm going to be very disappointed.

But thanks guys. I guess the only way I'll know is to keep going. 193lbs so far.

 

[cornflake]

How did you decide on your target?

 

[Foxhound3857]

How did you decide on your target?

I researched my height and build and came out with a healthy weight range for those specific parameters. The range was 147-168lbs. So I'm going for 160-165lbs.

 

[Foxhound3857]

What kind of alcohols are low in calories? I'm going to Vegas next week and I need to know what kind of cocktails/booze I can drink without killing my diet.

 

[FireDancer]

What kind of alcohols are low in calories? I'm going to Vegas next week and I need to know what kind of cocktails/booze I can drink without killing my diet.

None. There are 7 calories in each gram of alcohol. Your body will metabolize alcohol before anything else which means if you drink a lot of it your body will just store the calories you eat as fat.

Your best bet it to have wine but only a glass or two. If the plan is to get drunk than no matter what you do your diet will, at least temporarily, be killed.

 

[teskak]

I have to second Frank. Alcohol is a poison, it tastes great but your liver processes it as a poison before anything else, the other carbs & proteins in your bloodstream are just dumped as fat until the liver is finished with the alcohol.

You could have an optimal food diet, but get wasted on booze and you will gain weight. I noticed it on my belly after 2 drinks one day.

The only thing with more calories per gram is straight fat. I mentioned at the start of the thread that you have to make the choice of what is more important - weight loss or Vegas booze and accept the consequences of your choice. If you are going to drink alcohol then moderation, moderation, moderation. Just enough to be social but expect to still be sober by the end of the night. As for what booze, wine is ok, or liquor + diet coke. No beer, cider, full strength Coke products and NOTHING with cream.

If your hotel has a gym, use it. Because you will not have a hangover, use the gym each morning to burn off the calories in advance of your nighttime fun.

 

[LPZ_Stitch!]

Well, at the very least I want my belly to be flat enough to not show when I wear a smaller shirt, or hang over my jeans, when I hit my target goal.

If I hit my target goal and my belly is still showing, I'm going to be very disappointed.

No one can guarantee what you'll look like when you're done ... but I can tell you from my experience that losing 25 lbs (195 -> 170) did a LOT for making my belly fat disappear and to look much better; relatively flat and certainly not hanging over the belt/jeans.

In addition to carefully counting the calories, I did both aerobic exercise (biking or eliptical training to the tune of about 400 cal/day) and some weight training with a home-gym where I could do leg-raises and weighted crunches; sometimes situps, too.

Of course, I don't have abs like a movie star (I'm 42!), but I'm definitely much happier with how I look.

I remember reading on a nutrition/weightloss site that if youf goal is a "six-pack", you'll need to continue consuming calories at about 80% of your standard "maintenance" level (once you 1st succeed in losing the extra weight).

 

[teskak]

I have not heard from the OP and 3 weeks have passed - so how is the weight loss journey going?

 

[IDoDis]

Well, at the very least I want my belly to be flat enough to not show when I wear a smaller shirt, or hang over my jeans, when I hit my target goal.

If I hit my target goal and my belly is still showing, I'm going to be very disappointed.

But thanks guys. I guess the only way I'll know is to keep going. 193lbs so far.

The easiest way to describe how body fat goes away from diet & exercise, is that you lose the body fat in sheets. So picture your body being peeled in thin sheets a little at a time. It's not noticeable at first, but once enough sheets have been peeled away people start to notice as if you've lost the weight over night.

You cannot work one area of your body and shrink just that area, despite what advertisements say. It just doesn't work that way.

So, if you lose, you'll lose everywhere, including your belly. If you still have a belly after you've gotten to your target weight, you might need to think about lowering your target weight another 10 to 15 pounds.